"I'm very happy doing what I'm doing as foreign minister," she repeated this morning.

And not everyone believes she has a chance. In a weekend column News Corp's Andrew Bolt described Ms Bishop as "ephemerally popular, but is also a lightweight whose political judgment seems as lousy as the PM's".

Bishop got Karl with a zinger this morning.

Bolt's verdict was that voters and the Liberal party were stuck with Mr Turnbull.

It's perhaps cold comfort to the Prime Minister as he comes off a messy week that saw his deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce ruled ineligible to sit in parliament.

Ms Bishop's ascension into the role of acting prime minister while Mr Turnbull is in Israel for leader-level talks and the centenary of the Battle of Beersheba, gives her a chance to shine.